Stephen Crane"s literary technique has long been a matter of great interest, analysis, and speculation. In The Red Badge of Courage Crane takes us into the life of a young man named Henry Fleming, who wants to enlist in the United States Army and fight in the war against the South. By using irony, similes, and symbols, to name a few, Crane "paints" a vivid picture of what life was like for the fragile Henry Fleming. He opens our eyes to the vast reasons of separation for Fleming, and why he lived his life so independently. The precarious, vulnerable,...
himself, Henry matures over the course of the narrative. He becomes unified with his fellow comrades and his regiment, puts the dispute with his mother aside, and faces his fears and doubts. Stephen Crane, author of The Red Badge of Courage summarizes this gradual and significant process with this vivid sentence: "Over the river a golden ray of sun came through the hosts of leaden rain clouds." This sentence, the last sentence in the novel, hits the reader the hardest. It points out that becoming what we want to become, like it did Henry, takes time and continuous effort.